Netflix And Chill: Office Uprising (2018)

You wait for one movie that works with the premise of a downtrodden office worker finding a renewed sense of purpose in the midst of a situation turning everyone incredibly violent and then three come along at once. Yes, after the corporate violence of The Belko Experiment and Mayhem, Office Uprising is the latest genre offering to remind everyone of how much stronger the survival instinct can be in people who are spend most days trying to avoid being stabbed in the back by colleagues.

Brenton Thwaite is Desmond, a laid-back staff member at Ammotech, a leading company in the world of weapon manufacturing. Cutbacks are happening, leading to a more competitive atmosphere than ever, but "our hero" would rather spend as much time as he can developing his phone app/game on company time. That lazy schedule is interrupted, however, when most of his colleagues turn into raging maniacs. It is all the fault of an energy drink this time. A scientifically-engineered energy drink. Once ingested, it ramps up the aggression levels of the drinker. Desmond needs to get to safety, with the only two co-workers he views as anything like friends.

Directed by Lin Oeding, already a bit of a veteran in the stunt industry and now building a directorial career in shorts, TV, and this feature, the worst thing about Office Uprising is that it comes along after two superior movies riffing on very similar material.

The other worst thing about it is the tone. Writers Ian Shorr and Peter Gamble never seem committed to their own creation. The humour isn't as sharp or smart as it could be, and the moments of violence generally use shouting and insults to try and distract viewers from the fact that there's not that much actual nastiness and bloodshed on display. It's a shame, especially when Shorr has the wince-inducing Splinter in his filmography, and leaves you with the impression that the film doesn't have any guts or heart beneath the surface.

There's one more major factor working against it. Thwaites just doesn't make for a great lead in this particular role. He's just not a good fit here, almost sleepwalking through most of his screentime, which is a shame. It's a good job that the two people he hopes to keep alive are Jane Levy (already able to make a claim as something of a scream queen) and Karan Soni (arguably best known for his hilarious turn as Dopinder in the Deadpool movies). And the main villain of the piece is played with the expected level of aplomb by Zachary Levi, which also helps. Gregg Henry and Kurt Fuller aren't given enough screentime though, and there isn't quite enough to fix the damage caused by the miscasting of Thwaites.

It's not a terrible film, especially if you're after something that mixes some humour and horror without too much gore thrown around the place, but it lacks bite (no pun intended), it lacks focus and commitment, and it's never one that I would encourage you to prioritise above others that you may want to take a chance on.

5/10

Office Uprising is currently available on Netflix (UK, not sure about other territories).

Bonus Review: Maleficent (2014)

Maleficent, for those who may have forgotten, is the main villain in Disney's Sleeping Beauty, a film that remains an undeniable high point amongst so many animated classics from the House Of Mouse. This film is all about her, and allows people to see a different side to the famous baddie. Apparently, the story that we all thought we knew didn't play out quite as we were told. Maleficent changes that, giving viewers the other side of events. It is to Sleeping Beauty as Wicked is to The Wizard Of Oz, to make the obvious analogy.

I don't want to give too much away, as there are a number of pleasant surprises here in the way that the plot unfolds, so all I will say in my summation of the storyline is that Maleficent is introduced as a happy, winged fairy (played by Isobelle Molloy) and then experiences something that turns her into the scary adult that cursed a princess named Aurora. The scary adult version of Maleficent is played by Angelina Jolie, and the Aurora who is due to suffer on her sixteenth birthday is played by Elle Fanning.

Let me start with the positives here, because I liked a lot of aspects of Maleficent. The first, and main, ace up its sleeve is Angelina Jolie in the lead role. There may be scenes in which her cheekbones are far too distracting (no, really, I'm serious, I thought they were going to rip through her skin at some points), but her performance is almost perfect throughout. She puts on a decent British accent, looks superb in the costume and make-up, and manages to move from scary to funny to sad as the scenes demand. I know, I know, that's a basic requirement for many actors, although you wouldn't always know it, but she really dances through all of the mood changes with ease. The rest of the cast also do good work, although Sharlto Copley is left to go overboard as the distraught king/father who becomes obsessed with destroying Maleficent before any harm comes to his daughter. Fanning is very likable, and Sam Riley is an absolute standout as Diaval, a crow transformed into a man. Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton, and Juno Temple are fine as fairies (although they are given far too many comedy moments that aren't really all that funny), and Brenton Thwaites is perfectly acceptable as the bland Prince Charming type, Prince Phillip, to be exact.

The production values, and the design of the world shown onscreen, are also excellent. There are often an over-abundance of FX shots in each sequence, but they're pretty gorgeous. This is eye candy, and it's eye candy that many will find most satisfying when things move from the sweetness and light of the opening scenes to the darker visual style of the next hour.

Unfortunately, that's about all I have in the way of compliments.

Director Robert Stromberg, enjoying his first time in the big chair, fumbles things from the very beginning. I have little doubt that many decisions were dictated to him, and I should have expected a final product like this from Disney (damn my eyes for letting the trailer deceive me), but the bright, colourful moments don't feel as if they belong in this movie. When things darken, however, they don't go dark enough. This isn't a twist on familiar material. This is an entire rewrite to make everything sweeter, which makes the movie lazy and clumsy when it should have been interesting and much more impressive.

Thankfully for Stromberg, he can quickly point a finger at screenwriter Linda Woolverton, because this is one stinker of a script. Oh, there are some great lines here and there, mostly made great thanks to the delivery by Jolie, but it's 95% awful, made worse by the fact that it's clearly meant to be clever and fun throughout. The voiceover narration, by Janet McTeer, is especially bad, often relating information that could have been shown onscreen. In fact, it's occasionally describing exactly what IS being shown onscreen. At the start of the movie I thought it was irritating, but acceptable, as a shorthand way to throw viewers into the world. But I soon wanted McTeer to just shut up, which she doesn't (okay, she does, but the narration keeps cropping up at various points throughout the movie).

This is a film made enjoyable by the sheer force of Jolie's adopted personality in the main role, and even she can't always do enough to improve the lines that she's given. That would take real magic, and there's none of that here.

5/10

Enjoy Maleficent's original appearance when this is released in the UK in a few days - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sleeping-Beauty-Blu-ray-Ken-Anderson/dp/B00JGTSWBK/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1401307120&sr=1-2&keywords=sleeping+beauty

I WILL keep reminding people that every copy of my book sold gets a few pounds in my pocket, and gets you a good read (if I say so myself). So please feel free to remember me whenever you're visiting Amazon.

The UK version can be bought here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1395945647&sr=1-3&keywords=movie+guide

And American folks can buy it here - http://www.amazon.com/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395945752&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=TJs+ramshackle+mov

As much as I love the rest of the world, I can't keep up with all of the different links in different territories, but trust me when I say that it should be there on your local Amazon.